Jeremy Hunt hits back at Donald Trump's claim that NHS is 'going broke and not working'

Health Secretary attacks the US system 'where 28 million people have no cover'

Jeremy Hunt has joined in an extraordinary war of words with Donald Trump over the NHS, with an outspoken attack on the US healthcare system.

The Health Secretary hit back at the US President on Twitter, after he claimed the UK’s heath service is “going broke and not working” – pointing to a demonstration in London on Saturday.

Mr Hunt posted: “I may disagree with claims made on that march but not ONE of them wants to live in a system where 28m people have no cover.

“NHS may have challenges but I’m proud to be from the country that invented universal coverage – where all get care no matter the size of their bank balance.”

The tweets came after Mr Trump criticised the NHS in comments attacking plans by the Democratic Party for universal healthcare, which could be modelled on it.

The demonstration on Saturday, where thousands marched on Downing Street calling on the Government to give the NHS the funding it needs, was an argument against the US adopting a similar system, he argued.

The President tweeted: “The Democrats are pushing for Universal Healthcare while thousands of people are marching in the UK because their U system is going broke and not working. Dems want to greatly raise taxes for really bad and non-personal medical care. No thanks!”

Jeremy Corbyn also responded to Mr Trump’s tweet, posting: “Wrong. People were marching because we love our NHS and hate what the Tories are doing to it. Healthcare is a human right.”

While the Liberal Democrats said the President was dangerously wrong on the NHS.

The party's health spokesperson, Baroness Jolly, said: “Trump is dangerously deluded about the NHS. He needs to read up on how his own health system works before attacking others”.

She added: “His unwillingness to listen to new ideas is not only a damaging indictment of his approach to leadership, but also leaves Americans unhealthier, poorer and with a lower quality of life.”

The President’s tweets followed a segment on Fox News about the weekend’s NHS is in crisis: Fix it now” march in London, he added: “Thank you to Fox and Friends for exposing the truth.

“Perhaps that’s why your ratings are soooo much better than your untruthful competition!”

In the segment Fox hosts interviewed former UKIP leader Nigel Farage about the pressures on the NHS, unlike the protesters he attributed these to migrants.

“The problem we’ve got is a population crisis caused by government policy on immigration,” said Mr Farage.

“We haven’t got enough hospitals, we haven’t got enough doctors, we haven’t got enough facilities.”

However NHS organisations have repeatedly stressed how immigration is essential to the operation of the health service, with 85 per cent of trusts saying overseas recruitment would be key to keeping services running in the next three years.

The “was in protest of Government funding restraint which has seen the number and severity of patients it sees each year rapidly outstrip its budget.

Health economists have said the health service needs £4bn for 2018/19 but it was given less than half that amount in the autumn Budget, it also received a £337m cash injection for this winter just days before December began.

Despite this funding restraint and lower per capita health spending than many comparable countries, the NHS performs relatively well on independent assessments.

Last year a review of healthcare in key OECD countries by the Commonwealth Fund think-tank, ranked the NHS top – driven chiefly by the affordability and equality of access to treatment.

While the NHS came second last on the “health outcomes” category, and lags behind other systems in areas like cancer care, it still performed better than the American system on this measure.